1883 Chemise

 Almost 6.5 years ago I originally made 1883 Chemise, I drafted the pattern from Fashions of the Gilded Age Vol. 1 Chemise with small sleeves. I never drafted the sleeves and only half hem the bottom, neckline and armscyes. 

In August I had to return home for some medical appointments, and when I was home, I decided I should finally finish it. 

The chemise never fit quite right. The neckline was really low, the armscyes was cut weird.

First I seam ripped the shoulder, this was going to need to be lengthened for less fabric to be removed from the armscyes. I had about 1.5” of excess fabric there anyway. I then backstitched as close to the frayed edged as possible and trimmed the frayed part.

I then tried it on and it was already much better, but I still marked the armsyces where I wanted to cut it. After I removed the excess. I I folded twice as little as possible with some very light pink polyester thread that I think we had since the early late 2000s / early 2010s. The part I didn’t cut was folded once, and just folded the part in half.

Then for the neckline hem, I just folded it over, for the shoulder strap area it was just enough to cover the hem from the armscyes and whipped stitch it down, trying to only catch the hem from the armscye. The neckline hem did increase as the main part of the shoulder strap disappeared, to the full seam allowance that the neckline was originally hemmed with. This part was done with a running back stitch.

When I finished the neckline I decided I wasn’t going to finish hemming the bottom hem, as I didn’t want to do it, and was going to need to iron the chemise again. The hem was originally done on a machine, so it should be good from fraying but if it does I may need to actually hem it, or just make new under garments. It is tight across the chest and hip areas, and I do struggle a tad to get it off.

 

Love,

Paige

Current WIPs: 

- 1880s Redthreaded Corset 

- Granny Stripe Blanket (currently on hold, I have worked on it this summer but it is currently not with me)

 

Planned 

- Knitted Socks (4)

- Repair Work

• Blanket: Binding
• Chemise: Hem 
• Petticoat: Hook & Eyes → need corset
• Wash Dress: Hook & Eyes → need corset
• Crinoline Cage: Bag & Closure may need resizing → earliest mid dec * not likely